Who Really Beat Qaddafi? (Not NATO)

[Binh]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/27/1010769/-Who-really-beat-Qaddafi

[Os Cangaceiros]

The campaign that routed Qaddafi's Tripoli defenses in a few days was masterful! First there were the coordinated campaigns in the west coming down from the Nafusah Mountains and from in the east, west of Misrata, then the convergence on Tripoli via three major roads, from the west, east and south, together with an amphibious landing of a brigade from Misrata and the uprising by secret forces already in Tripoli. It was a brilliant victory. It showed great unity and coordination by freedom fighters from separate parts of Libya and the leadership of their command staff in spite of the assassination of their chief of staff, most likely by Qaddafi agents, only weeks before. It will go down in military history as a classic victory.

The idea that the authors of this were some westerners who just parachuted in and not the people who lived Qaddafi's nightmare for 40 years and have been fighting it for the last 6 months is ridiculous. Those most likely to believe it are those that have some misconceptions about the supremacy of western special forces and the inferiority of Arabs.

hoooooooooo-boy. This article should elicite some interesting commentary. I imagine that everyone including the anti-Qaddafi-ites will be shaking their heads at stuff like this.

[Bolshy]

Would-be revolutionaries should not base their political views on pro-imperialist editorializing by such media as the Democratic Party oriented "Daily Kos".

There were no "Libyan freedom fighters" - only reactionary militias cobbled together by u.s./nato, who armed and financed them from the beginning.

[#FF0000]

yes when I want to know about warefare, the first person i'm gonna go to is some twat from the daily kos.

jesus christ. all of my hate. all of my anger.

[#FF0000]

jesus christ the rebels could barely tie their shoes without NATO coordinating it what am i readinggggggggg

[Bolshy]

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/libyan-soldier-true-heroes-nato%E2%80%99s-war

The Libyan Soldier: The True Heroes of NATO’s War

Wed, 08/24/2011 - 13:02 — Glen Ford

http://blackagendareport.com/sites/www.blackagendareport.com/files/imagecache/feature400/libyan_soldiers.jpg

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

NATO has proven it has the capacity to kill thousands of Libyan soldiers from the skies, but it cannot “convey honor and legitimacy” to the rebels under its killer wings. “They are little more than extras for imperial theater, a mob that traveled under the protective umbrella of American full spectrum dominance of the air.” The incinerated bodies of her soldiers have secured Libya’s place in history.

The Libyan Soldier: The True Heroes of NATO’s War
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The Libyan armed forces maintained their unit integrity and personal honor, with a heroism reminiscent of the loyalist soldiers of the Spanish Republic, in the late 1930s.”

The story is not over – not by a long shot – but the saga of the Libyan resistance to the superpower might of the United States and its degenerate European neocolonial allies will surely occupy a very special place in history.

For five months, beginning March 19, the armed forces of a small country of six million people dared to defy the most advanced weapons systems on the planet, on terrain with virtually no cover, against an enemy capable of killing whatever could be seen from the sky or electronically sensed.

Night and day, the eyes of the Euro-American war machine looked down from space on the Libyan soldiers’ positions, with the aim of incinerating them. And yet, the Libyan armed forces maintained their unit integrity and personal honor, with a heroism reminiscent of the loyalist soldiers of the Spanish Republic under siege by German, Italian and homegrown fascists, in the late 1930s.

The Germans and Italians and Generalissimo Franco won that war, just as the Americans, British, French and Italians may ultimately overcome the Libyan army. But they cannot convey honor or national legitimacy to their flunkies from Benghazi, who have won nothing but a badge of servitude to foreign overseers. The so-called rebels won not a single battle, except as walk-ons to a Euro-American military production. They are little more than extras for imperial theater, a mob that traveled to battle under the protective umbrella of American full spectrum dominance of the air. They advanced along roads already littered with the charcoal-blackened bodies of far better men, who died challenging Empire.

“The so-called rebels won not a single battle, except as walk-ons to a Euro-American military production.”

One thing is sure: the Americans and Europeans have never respected their servants. The so-called rebels of Libya will be no different. Washington, Paris and London know perfectly well that is was their 18,000 aircraft sorties, their cruise missiles, their attack helicopters, their surveillance satellites and drones, their command and control systems, their weapons, and their money, that managed to kill or wound possibly half the Libyan army. Not the rabble from Benghazi.

The rebels should not take too seriously being fawned over by the ridiculous hordes of corporate media tourists that have come to Tripoli to record the five-month war's finale. They are highly paid cheerleaders. And, although it may appear that they are cheering for the rebels, don't be fooled – at the end of the day, the western corporate media only cheer for their own kind. They are celebrating what they believe is a victory over the Libyan demon they have helped to construct in their countrymen's minds. Next year, rebel, that demon might be you.

Or next year, it might be many Libyans, including those who were no friends of Col. Moammar Gaddafi. The Americans treat their native minions like children in need of supervision – and there is a certain logic to this, since whoever would entrust his nation's sovereignty and resources to the Americans is, surely, either exceedingly stupid, or hopelessly corrupt. But Libya's honor and her place in history has already been secured by a small African army that held out nearly half a year against the NATO barbarians.

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com (http://www.blackagendareport.com/).

[danyboy27]

i think this article is misleading. the number of target hit by NATO dosnt really matter, the strategic and tactical values of the target hit does.

Its way much easier to coordonate and plan something like the attack on tripoli if you dont have to worry about the ennemy attacking you beccause you are protected by a big airforce.

Its like playing chess against someone who lost his towers, queen and fools. you can loose but that would be verry hard.

[#FF0000]

i think this article is misleading. the number of target hit by NATO dosnt really matter, the strategic and tactical values of the target hit does.

Its way much easier to coordonate and plan something like the attack on tripoli if you dont have to worry about the ennemy attacking you beccause you are protected by a big airforce.

Its like playing chess against someone who lost his towers, queen and fools. you can loose but that would be verry hard.

exactly. I would love to see how close the berbers could've gotten to Tripoli if it wasn't for NATO bombing the shit out of Libya's Multiple Rocket Launchers.

No, yeah, go ahead and march across how many miles of flat fucking desert face first into some katyushkas and see what happens. We could've called it "Belhaj's Charge".

[danyboy27]

exactly. I would love to see how close the berbers could've gotten to Tripoli if it wasn't for NATO bombing the shit out of Libya's Multiple Rocket Launchers.

No, yeah, go ahead and march across how many miles of flat fucking desert face first into some katyushkas and see what happens. We could've called it "Belhaj's Charge".

beating gadafi forces was not an impossibility, war constantly change. Perhaps if gadafi would have attacked benghazi undisturbed he would have achieved a military victory but a political failure that would have resulted in further unrest and eventually the end of his reign, we will never know.

Right now the NATO allowed a politically weak movement to take over the country, its a recipies for fucking disaster, even for those interested in western control over these regions.

and that why people should mind their damn buisness when it come to geopolitics.

[#FF0000]

beating gadafi forces was not an impossibility

Oh, definitely not. The Libyan military's a joke. Militias with nothing but toyotas and soviet machine guns turned their entire army back.

[Kamos]

Gaddafi would have beaten the rebels easily if they had been on their own. Even with NATO support the rebels took ages, and weren't constantly advancing either. The notion that it's not NATO who won the war is ridiculous, of course. The comparison to Republican Spain is pretty fitting here (with the exception that back then the Republic got some aid at least).

[danyboy27]

Gaddafi would have beaten the rebels easily if they had been on their own. Even with NATO support the rebels took ages, and weren't constantly advancing either. The notion that it's not NATO who won the war is ridiculous, of course. The comparison to Republican Spain is pretty fitting here (with the exception that back then the Republic got some aid at least).

but then again its meaningless to win a military victory if you loose the political battle.

we really dont know what would have happened if the anti-gadafi elements would have been totally on their own, perhaps it would have been a good for them that the TNC would have been destroyed for a more genunine resistance movement to organize.

[Binh]

This article should elicite some interesting commentary.

The comments above should disabuse you of the notion that there is much interesting commentary on Revleft. Most of it seems to be infantile denunciations and facile Lenin-quoting. No one dealt with any of the substantive issues the article raised; instead, they whined and snivelled about Daily Kos.

Some communists.